Pyrrhic Victory / Anime & Manga

Pyrrhic Victories in anime and manga.

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• In Attack on Titan, it seems that humanity is doomed to experience these. Any victory they manage to obtain by the skin of their teeth comes with heavy losses, and massive destruction, with the survivors wondering whether or not it could even be considered a true victory. Jean also questions whether any victory that requires them to throw away their humanity can even be considered a victory, rejecting the tendency of his superiors (and Armin) to fall back on stating that I Did What I Had to Do.
  • During the battle of Trost, humanity obtains their first real victory, taking back the city from the Titans. But with the city massively damaged, hundreds wounded or dead, and the gate forever sealed (undoing four years of the Survey Corps' hard work), no one feels like celebrating.
  • The raid on Stohess District ultimately succeeds in capturing Annie, thereby proving the existence of Titan Shifter spies and saving Eren from being handed over to the authorities. But with the city badly damaged, and the heavy toll on both civilian and military lives, many are horrified when Erwin states that it can be considered a victory. That Annie encased herself in a Crystal Prison to prevent interrogation does not help matters. Not to mention that a good portion of the populace is outraged that the Survey Corps conducted such a destructive, deadly mission right in the heart of humanity's capital.
  • The mission to rescue Eren is successful, but at a massive physical and emotional cost. Erwin loses his right arm in the battle, and Hannes is among the many killed during the prolonged chase and battle. Krista is also successfully retrieved, but Ymir flees along with the exposed traitors — Reiner and Bertolt. Learning that the group's surrogate Big Brother and Team Dad is The Mole is a devastating blow to everyone.
  • The mission to reseal Shinganshina and find a way into the basement of Eren's childhood home is also successful, but with heavy losses, to the point at which there are only nine survivors in the entire Survey Corps. In particular, Erwin dies of his injuries, and while Armin is saved by an Emergency Transformation into a Titan followed by him eating Bertolt to steal his Colossus Titan ability, Armin now only has 13 years to live.
  • A battle for Fort Slava between Marley and the Mid-East Alliance ends with a decisive victory for Marley, but at the end of the battle, Reiner as the Armored Titan is nearly killed protecting Zeke from a naval barrage. This lets the world know that military technology has finally surpassed the power of the Titan Shifters, and this leaves Marley in a very uncomfortable position knowing that their greatest trump cards are quickly becoming obsolete.
  • It even happens after Eren essentially blackmails the Survey Corps into helping him destroy the Marley city of Liberio. Sure, they saved Eren, captured Zeke and killed a bunch of important Marley government and military officials, and Eren managed to obtain the powers of the Warhammer Titan... but, on the other hand, Eren is now seen as a threat by the rest of the world, who plan on invading Paradis Island and wiping out the Eldians who live there. None of the Survey Corps members are happy with what Eren's done, as he's endangered all of them and made their homeland a target. Some of them also blame him for some of the deaths of their fellow soldiers, namely Sasha. Later, when Zeke is being transported secretly by Levi within the walls of Paradis, this is lampshaded.
  Zeke: So... your reports say you were victorious? Ignorance... is a frightening thing.
  • The ending itself can be considered a MASSIVE one for Eren, as even though he succeeds in ending the war and his efforts has the Power Of The Titans ultimately removed from the world (ensuring his friends can live long peaceful lives), it ultimately comes at the cost of his humanity as he ends up becoming the Final Boss that wipes out 80% of humanity and he is unable to stay with his friends as he wanted, as he had to push them away so they won’t get dragged down with him and have the strength to kill him, ultimately meeting his end at the hands of the woman he loved. And to add further insult to injury, while it ultimately takes centuries to reach that point (ensuring that his friends had long lived the lives Eren wanted them to have), Paradis Island is still destroyed by war and the story ends with a boy and his dog about to enter the now titanic tree Eren was buried under, strongly hinting that the Power Of The Titans will return. Basically, in the end, the only things Eren were able to accomplish that stuck was helping free Ymir (breaking the Curse of Ymir on Armin and the other Titan Shifters in the process) and giving his friends a chance to live the rest of their lives in peace.
• Toward the end of the Golden Age Arc in Berserk, the Band of the Hawk succeed in rescuing their leader Griffith from the torture dungeon in the Tower of Rebirth in Wyndham against all of the odds that were thrown at them (which included the king's guards, foreign assassins, and an exiled band of sadistic murdering and raping mercenaries led by a truly nasty Apostle). However, in the end, not much came out of it since Griffith was too horribly damaged from the torture he endured to be the leader or the man that he once was. Harsher in Hindsight though — despite how cruel it sounds, the Hawks were probably better off not rescuing Griffith at all if they knew what was going to happen to them when the Eclipse went down.
• In Bleach, Uryu's fight with Mayuri Kurotsuchi ended with Uryu defeating Kurotsuchi at the cost of having all of his powers semi-permanently sealed away.
  • Ichigo finally defeats Ulquiorra by giving into his Superpowered Evil Side. Yes, he won, but in doing so he traumatized one friend, stabbed and tried to kill another, and brutally mauled his opponent to death.
  • Also, his final victory against Aizen. Aizen can only be sealed away and imprisoned, meaning there's always a chance he could return (and in the Final Battle, he DOES). Meanwhile, Ichigo sacrificed his powers and his ability to be a substitute Shinigami. Thinking he has no right to complain about this, he tries to go on with a normal human life for 17 months, his grades slipping and not planning for his future because he's unable to face up to reality that having the power to protect is an integral part of who he is, without which he's reduced to simply existing instead of actually living. It takes another substitute shinigami shaking up his life to make him face and accept the truth.
  • Sajin Komamura sacrificed his heart in order to become stronger and, for a while, making him incapable of death. He then proceeds to curb stomp Bambietta. However, after his new technique wears off, he permanently loses all his Shinigami powers, and becomes an ordinary wolf. He never even manages to reach Yhwach, the one he truly wanted to use this power against to avenge Yamamoto's death. Even worse, Bambietta was at best just an Elite Mook and while she gets turned into a zombie by her own allies, at least she still has all her powers.
• Brave Raideen: When Barao invaded the Mu Empire for the first time, coincidentally, the Earth was shaken by such a violent tsunami that he was sunk to the ground. Unfortunately, it also hit the Mu Empire, which began to sink. On top of being heavily broken by the scourge of Barao's demons, there was only one Mu strong enough to defeat Barao - Lemuria - and she was kept in cryostatis before being placed in a ship that took her to safety, while the rest of the Mu died.
• The anime ending of Chrono Crusade qualifies. Chrono and Rosette manage to save Joshua and defeat Aion, but Joshua is badly brain damaged and can't remember them, Chrono and Rosette are badly injured during the final battle and die together six months later, Satella kills her sister and herself in order to stop Fiore from taking Joshua back to Aion, Remington is left broken and filled with regret, Aion's plans cause the Great Depression, and in the 1980s Remington witnesses a man that appears to be Aion take out a gun and shoot the Pope. It's also implied that Aion is revived by humanity's sins and will live on as long as sin exists in the world, meaning that Chrono and Rosette's sacrifices only seem to stop Aion temporarily.
• The end of Code Geass goes something like this — Lelouch is dead, Suzaku had to fake his death (and both of their reputations are in ruins), the entire populations of both Tokyo and the Britannian capital are dead and it's likely that Nunnally and several others are likely to need some kind of therapy (which they apparently got by the epilogue). The world's at peace, but it's come at a heavy price.
• The ending of Death Note certainly feels like one of these. Soichiro Yagami, one of the only truly good characters in the series (according to the artist himself) is dead, L is dead, Mello is dead (although that was just as planned), poor Matsuda's probably going to need some serious therapy, there is no afterlife (at least in the manga), God knows how many NPCs are dead, and a year later, the world's practically returned to normal. Kira barely changed anything. Ouch.
  • The manga's ending is less Pyrrhic for Light though, as there is still a cult of followers worshiping him, even though everything else returned to normal.
  • The movie version is only marginally better. L gains 23 days, but he still dies. Kira is stopped sooner, but the world still goes back to normal. There's still no afterlife (at least for Death Note users). This time, he survives, but Soichiro's the one that needs therapy now.
• Devilman combines this with The Bad Guy Wins. Ryo/Satan succeeds in his goal of wiping out humanity, except that it cost him everything. The demon army he was leading to retake the Earth was wiped out to a man, and even his best friend/love interest Akira was killed at his hands without him even realizing, leaving him as last living thing on Earth. And even then, his hollow victory doesn't last very long before God hits the Reset Button on the entire planet.
  • This is made even worse by the fact that it is revealed in the Gekiman! biographic manga that it was actually God himself who wiped out the remaining devilmen and demons. So ultimately, God is the bad guy who wins, not Satan.
• D.Gray-Man:
  • At the end of the Noah's Ark Arc, after battling all these Noah, Allen Walker restores the Ark by playing a special song in a secret room within the Ark that the Noah don't know. Of course, Everyone who came along for the journey, got left behind, and supposedly died come back, but when they get back, poor Allen is charged for knowing how to control the Ark, since only certain Noah know how, and for being the container for the 14th. Not only does he have to control this monster inside his head, he has to be subjected to some not so good treatment from Leverrier. Now is that the way to treat your savior?
  • The Attack of the Black Order arc results in an even more pyrrhic victory. Bonus points for happening just after the above pyrrhic victory. They do succeed in repelling the invader (especially the level 4) and stopping Lulu Bell from retrieving the akuma egg but the akumas end up destroying a good part of the facility leading to a relocation, kill many members in both the science section and the security section and the worst is Marie commenting that with this attack the earl probably wanted to make them understand that he could kill them whenever he wants. This is supported by the last words of the level 4 they had so much trouble to get rid of "Don't act cocky for beating a weakling like me".
• Defeating the D-Reaper in Digimon Tamers was this. Basically, the only way to stop it was to use a weapon that damaged their own Digimon to the point they had to go back to the Digital World or die, and by the time it was ready the D-Reaper had already destroyed a good portion of both the Digital and real worlds. To rub salt in the wound, the weapon couldn't even kill the D-Reaper — all it did was let the Tamers seal it away and pray to the Sovereigns that it never broke out.
• Several times throughout Dragon Ball.
  • The fight with Raditz ends with a Pyrrhic victory for Piccolo. He succeeds in killing both the alien threat powerful enough to fight Earth's strongest warriors and his long-time enemy Son Goku, but in the process the alien's even meaner, stronger buddies are now coming to kill them all. Plus, the circumstances behind how he was able to kill Goku leave him both unsatisfied and wondering what to do next with his life before the problem with the oncoming alien threat comes up.
  • Most notably, the end of the Saiyan Arc; while the Saiyans are repelled, with Nappa being killed and Vegeta retreating in bad shape, more than half of the Z Fighters are killed (Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chiaozu, and Piccolo) in the battle, and even the survivors are in pretty rough shape. Even worse, Kami is dead due to his life force being linked with Piccolo's, meaning that the Dragon Balls are gone and no one can be brought back to life again. When the discovery of the existence of Dragon Balls on Namek is made, the race is on to find and gather them before the new bad guys do.
  • Dragon Ball Super has perhaps the most grim ending yet in the Future Trunks arc; Just when it seems like Big Bad Zamasu has been defeated once and for all, his fused form turns into an Eldritch Abomination that begins to consume the universe itself, causing Goku to press the button he'd been given earlier to summon the King of All. Once he arrives, he takes one look at the situation and decides "This is just hideous. I guess I'll just destroy this world". Goku and the others narrowly manage to leave the future timeline before it all disintegrates, and back in the present, Whis suggests that Trunks return to an earlier point in his timeline before Zamasu showed up. He'll go with him to warn Beerus about what Zamasu is about to do so the tragedy won't happen again, while Trunks and Mai get to live out their lives in peace, though since they'll be returning to an earlier point in their own lives, there will be two of them running around. The future world they fought so hard to protect from Zamasu and Goku Black? Gone. Their friends from that world? Dead. In short, this arc makes the ending to the Cell-arc look like pure sunshine and rainbows by comparison.
• Freezing. In every battle with the Monster of the Week, The Nova ends in massive death tolls, which increase with every battle as the Novas evolve and improve at a rate mankind just can't keep up with. The tiny part of the population able to fight The Nova is dwindling ever quicker and getting harder and harder to replace, made worse because the entire population able to fight Novas is made up of Child Soldiers who, on top of risking life and limb, die at a young age anyway because of the use of their powers.
• In Great Teacher Onizuka a Pyrrhic Victory is achieved by an antagonist in a beauty pageant. By cheating the voting system, she manages to beat Tomoko Nomura in the pageant. However, the moment that it's revealed that Tomoko was in last place, the majority of the audience is outraged, immediately (and rightfully) accusing the winner of cheating and demanding that Tomoko be made the winner instead. Tomoko responds to this with a heartfelt speech, thanking all of her fans for their support and sincerely congratulating the winner. As if to add insult to injury, by the time that the winner is finally able to start her acceptance speech, most of the audience has already started leaving, making it all the more obvious who the true winner was.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam:
    • In the backstory of the original series, Zeon had two. The first was the Battle of Loum, in which they crushed the Federation fleet at the price of nearly exhausting their own military itself (it's learning of this, alongside Revil's Rousing Speech as he told them this, that made the Federation decide to continue fighting instead of surrendering). Then there's the invasion of Earth itself, in which Zeon defeats numerous Federation armies and takes over large parts of the planet... And gets involved in a brutal attrition war against a foe that outnumbers and outproduces them by a ridiculous margin, wasting resources needed to build up the fleet for when the Federation will bring the battle back to space.
    • The final battle at A Baoa Qu. In the end Zeon is defeated and reverts to a Republic, but the Federation military (and the government's hold on its more militant elements) was weakened to the point that those remnants of Zeon's military that rejected the armistice are still a major threat. Furthermore, Revil was killed by the opening shot of the battle, so there's nobody to keep the military's most extremist elements in check and the Federation bureaucrats (so corrupted their very existence was Zeon's major propaganda element) remained the main face of the government.
  • The sequel series, Zeta Gundam has an even bigger case of this. The Titans are utterly defeated, but A.E.U.G forces are similarly devastated, with around 80% of the main cast dead and the lead character suffering from permanent brain damage. Oh, and the massively advanced Neo Zeon armada is about to commence a full-scale invasion of the earthsphere.
  • The premise of this series itself was caused by the success of Aiguille Delaz's Operation Stardust in the prequel Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. His fleet is decimated in the aftermath, he and his ace Gato was killed, and worst of all, it only gives extremist elements of the Federation Forces reason to create the Titans to prevent such uprisings from coming up in the future. Not to mention that Delaz's hope of inspiring other Zeon remnants to continue the fight were dashed. Remnants led by Haman, Char and Full Frontal all failed.
  • There are multiple in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:
    • In the Battle of Orbit, Admiral Halberton successfully gets the Archangel and the Strike to descend down to Earth and out of the reach of Le Creuset. However, the entirety of the Eighth Fleet is destroyed in the process, the Archangel ends up in ZAFT occupied territory, and his death means that they no longer have an advocate to OMNI high command.
    • The Battle of the Marshall Islands is this for both sides. The Archangel escapes to JOSH-A's defense perimeter, but has lost the Strike and all but one of its pilots. ZAFT meanwhile, finally destroys the "invincible" Strike, but loses every Gundam except the Duel, two of its best pilots, and fails to sink the Archangel.
    • The Battle of JOSH-A, Operation Spit Break, ended up as this for ZAFT. Oh, sure, they captured JOSH-A, but there was a bomb waiting for them, which ends up wiping out most of their forces.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE:
    • In the resolution of the Yurin/Flit/Emily Love Triangle, Emily got to both marry Flit and be the mother of his children Asemu and Unoa, but this is because Yurin was horribly killed off, thus Emily's "second-best" for him. And she's very aware of it. And we're not counting how Flit himself was broken beyond belief by the death of Yurin... enough to become the Dark Messiah Anti-Hero.
    • By the end Nearly EVERYONE on both sides except the 3 main Gundam leads are dead. Although Flit was able to resist going genocidal on the Vegans in the end he'd more or less wasted his whole life on a cause he abandoned in the end, and he died shortly after the war ended. Asemu became a wanted criminal and missed out on his son's entire childhood, and he wasn't able to help Zeheart in the end. Kio got his peace he wanted, but all the Vegans he personally knew and wanted to save all died. In spite of this very bleak outlook the series acts like it was a super happy ending, one reason the ending was not well received by fans.
  • After winning the previous Gundam Fight in G Gundam, Master Asia looks back and is horrified by the carnage and the damage he and the other participants have caused. He becomes bitter at humanity's willingness to go through such lengths and has thus chosen to be extreme in his own way.
  • In Gundam Build Divers, Riku finds himself challenged by Tsukasa in order to retrieve the special SD Gunpla that Tsukasa had taken which lead to Ayame's initial Face–Heel Turn. Tsukasa has them use the old Gunpla Duel game system so he can prove to Riku that his Gunpla Duel-honed skills were superior to anyone who played in Gunpla Battle Nexus Online. Riku ends up winning, getting back the Gunpla and disproving Tsukasa, but his Gunpla, the 00 Diver Ace, is wrecked due to the Gunpla Duel's system inflicting actual damage to the models.
• Harry McDowell in the anime version of the game franchise Gungrave first just wanted enough power to live his life freely and protect the people important to him. With time, he succeeds in rising to the top of Millennion and making it more powerful than the law itself, but only by losing sight of his original goals and betraying almost everyone he cares about. He's driven to kill both Brandon, his best friend whom he relied on all his life (leading to some spectacular Villainous Breakdowns), the fatherly prior head of the organization and his wife, Brandon's sweetheart. Twenty years later, though, he's finally able to face Brandon and come to terms with his life.
• In Heavy Object, the Heremes Pharmaceutical Group developed a "riot suppressant" gas which they discovered had a 99.8% fatality rate. The executives devised a plan to get rich: they bribed the oversight group to mark it as safe, sold it to their nation's police, and then extorted wealthy victims in exchange for antidotes. While the executives brought in a lot of money, killing 15,000 civilians brought their company under investigation with the implication it would soon be shut down. When the protagonists assault and start beating one of the responsible executives on stage, not a single one of the five hundred employees move to assist.
• Seen in Hell Girl. Yes, your contract with Enma Ai gives you what you want: to punish someone who's slighted you big time. However, by sending that person to Hell, you've condemned yourself as well, since when your life comes to an end, you will join them in Hell. See the mark on your chest? It'll remind you of the Deal with the Devil you made.
• At the end of Hellsing, The Major and every last one of his Millennium vampire soldiers have been slain, but he dies content. The cost of his defeat was the destruction of London, with almost all of its population dead overnight, Alucard apparently destroyed, the Hellsing and Iscariot Organizations having lost most of their key members, Pip and most of the Wild Geese dead, Walter having died a traitor (but managing to take the Doktor and his twisted creations with him), and Integra now missing an eye.
• Happens quite a bit in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Dio Brando barely survives losing his body and manages to murder Jonathan and steal his body on his honeymoon. However, Jonathan achieves his own Pyrrhic Victory, because despite that he manages to save Erina and the Joestar bloodline, and takes Dio and his menace down for a hundred years. Come Part 3, and Jonathan's descendants kill Dio for good.
  • Kars, the main villain of Part 2, gets what he wants which is to become the ultimate lifeform, which lives forever and can adapt to any environment or situation, but ends up flung into space, where he freezes to the point of turning into stone and eventually stops thinking.
  • In part 5, Narancia wins a victory like this over Formaggio, who attacks Narancia while he's buying groceries for Team Bucciarati and Trish (the girl they're trying to protect). At the end of the fight, Formaggio is dead, but the car Narancia used went up in flames, thus destroying the groceries Narancia was ordered to buy, and the destruction caused by the battle ends up drawing the attention of the rest of the Hitman Team, forcing the others to withdraw. Fugo chides Narancia for his failure, but Giorno reassures Narancia that he did well to survive and prevent the enemy from finding Trish.
  • Enrico Pucci in Part 6 kills most of the heroes (including Jotaro, the man who killed Dio) and obtains his vision of "heaven", if only for a moment... but then gets killed by Emporio (a mere child, no less) using Weather Report's Stand, and the world then gets the Reset Button, with the Joestars still being around (albeit without their memories) while he's no longer in the universe, having never been born.
  • In Part 7, Diego severs his own leg in order to defeat Jhonny, and manages to win the race. Shortly afterwards, that same self-inflicted injury prevents him from escaping a trap set by Lucy Steel, resulting in his own death.
• In Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, after 140 chapters of mind games, waiting, and sexual frustration, Kaguya finally manages to bait Shirogane into confessing his love for her. However, immediately afterwards she sticks her tongue down his throat, thereby (by her logic) making her look like a undisciplined, emotionally desperate slut even though he's the one who initiated their relationship. She has a Heroic BSoD afterward from the shame, while Shirogane feels nothing of the sort.
• In Kakegurui, the election arc ends with Absurdly Powerful Student Council President Kirari keeping her position after her devoted Secretary of Evil Sayaka uses all the money they extorted from the student body to buy the remaining votes, believing they could simply earn it back. However, Manic Pixie Dream Girl Yumeko donated the thousand votes she amassed to all the school's "house pet" slaves, allowing them all to buy their way out of slavery, single-handedly ending the caste system, and bankrupting the student council. Kirari, ever The Stoic ice queen, is simply amused while Sayaka has a Villainous Breakdown after realizing she walked right into her trap.
• In Kengan Asura Kano Agito, the fang of Metsudo and favorite to win the tournament receives one of these when fighting Gaolang. Up until this point, Agito had managed to beat all of his own opponents at their own game: Outstriking the strikers, outgrappling the grapplers and even managed to beat his previous opponent at all-round fighting skills. Not so much here, Agito finds himself outclassed by Gaolang's striking skills even before Gaolang stops holding back (He'd only been using his boxing techniques until this fight, upon which he pulls out his Muay Thai expertise). Agito only managed to win after Gaolang broke his fist due to a fluke, and even then he still had to resort to grappling. The fang may have won, but he didn't beat him.
• Lucky Star has a small-scale example with Konata's dad Soujiro demonstrating how to trap a mosquito that has landed on his arm by flexing his muscles, preventing it from flying away.
  Soujiro: You are already dead.
  Konata: You are already bitten.
  (Sojiro proceeds to suffer a rash from the mosquito bite.)
• Mazinger franchise:
  • Mazinger Z: After a long and hard battle, Kouji defeated Dr. Hell with Mazinger Z. However, the Mycene immediately attacks without giving any time to rest and he is unable to do anything to stop them. Mazinger Z, Venus A, Boss Borot and the Photon Research Institute are easily destroyed (and several world cities, including Tokyo, in the movie). Kouji is saved by Tetsuya and his Great Mazinger, who claims that Mazinger Z isn't needed anymore.
  • Great Mazinger: the heroes finally defeat the Mykene army... but it was due to the Heroic Sacrifice of Prof. Kabuto, Kouji and Shiro's biological father and Tetsuya and Jun's adoptive father. Despite the victory, nobody felt victorious; in fact Tetsuya blamed himself for his father's death, and rightly so. In one of the adaptations, Tetsuya himself bites the dust.
• In Medaka Box, this occurred in Kurokami Medaka's backstory. A genius at winning with the belief that her life's purpose is to bring happiness to complete strangers, Medaka usually works by defeating her opponents at their own game in ways that bring out their best traits and inspiring them to be better people. But in middle school, she encountered Kumagawa Misogi, a contrarian defeatist who never won at anything and easily brought out the worst parts of people. She tried to get him to reform, but their conflict hit a climax when Kumagawa ripped off a classmate's face with his bare hands (there was more to it than that, but that's a whole other story). The sight gave birth to Medaka's War God Mode, in which she'd lose her human sanity to rage and become an unrestrained demon, and both parties did what they did best; Medaka won and beat him to a pulp, Kumagawa lost and was removed from the school. However, Kumagawa's defeat didn't reform him one bit, whereas Medaka's victory actually hurt her more emotionally than it did her opponent. That incident would live on the following years as one of Medaka's greatest regrets.
• My Hero Academia:
  • A minor example occurred during the Heroes vs. Villains school exercise with Midoriya and Uraraka as the heroes and Bakugo and Iida as the villains. While Midoriya and Uraraka are able to secure the objective of the exercise and therefore prevail, Midoriya passed out with a broken arm and Uraraka becomes extremely nauseous to the point of vomiting, both from overexertion of their powers. Meanwhile Bakugo and Iida are basically untouched. The unusual circumstances of the Hero team's "win" are even lampshaded. The two are also chastised for causing collateral damage as part of their plan, which while okay from a purely pragmatic standpoint, is not very heroic, with Iida congratulated as the only one who actually followed his role.
  • The final battle of the UA Sports Festival. Bakugo defeats Todoroki and wins the tournament, but realizes that Todoroki held back against him due to personal issues with using his fire Quirk. Since he didn't actually prove that he's the strongest at UA, his victory is a hollow one that leaves him furious, and he has to be physically restrained to take his 1st place medal.
  • All Might's battle with All For One ends in one for him. All Might is victorious but his true form is revealed to the world, and he uses up the last bit of One For All during their fight, forcing him to retire. His opponent All For One meanwhile is locked up for good, but believes that his absence will spur his pupil on to become a stronger villain and feels that he came out ahead. Lampshaded when one police official says that the outcome could be considered a draw, since the rest of the League of Villains that weren't captured in the forest escaped, but a senior colleague says even that analysis is too optimistic.
  • In the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War, the heroes are mostly victorious, having stopped the PLF's attack and captured many of its key members, including Dr. Garaki, Re-Destro, Mr. Compress, and Gigantomachia. However, Shigaraki and several other members were still at large, while many Pro Heroes, including Midnight, were killed during the war, other heroes were traumatized by the horrorific events and retired, Endeavor and Hawks' reputations were tarnished thanks to Dabi, Shigaraki and Gigantomachia still managed to cause mass destruction, and the majority of the public ended up turning against Pro Heroes because of the events. On top of that, All For One then pulled off the impossible and lead a mass breakout of Tartarus, nullifying All Might's last heroic deed.
  • All for One's fight with Star and Stripe, the US's no. 1 hero. He gets her Quirk and kills her, but she enacts a Thanatos Gambit that completely blindsides him and leaves him severely weakened, with One for All still out there and stronger than ever.
• Twenty years before the main story in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Ala Rubra stopped the war in the Magical World and saved the world. Unfortunately, this was only achievable through the sealing of Asuna, which caused the floating capital to collapse and destroyed the cultural center of the world. The dynasty of the founders and kings of Ostia was also assumed to be wiped out when Arika was blamed for the disaster.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
  • The entire conflict against the Angels ends with Rei dead and replaced by a clone, Asuka traumatized into a coma, Kaworu dead with his soul sealed away inside the Adam embryo, most of the Evangelion units destroyed, Kaji dead, Misato crawling into a bottle, and Shinji becoming such a self-loathing mess he opens the following movie with a suicide attempt. It gets worse in the movie, when we realize the Angels are actually NOT the real threat as Shinji's Jerkass father reveals his final gambit for an Assimilation Plot along with his masters in SEELE. Gendo abandons everyone to be killed by SEELE while he goes downstairs to end the world.
  • In Rebuild of Evangelion, Shinji attempts to rescue Rei's soul from Zeruel's core after the former has been consumed by the angel. He fulfills this goal to an extent, but at the cost of triggering the Third Impact and kickstarting the end of the world. In the end, it is revealed in the third movie that he hadn't even been able to save the Rei he wanted to save after all.
• At the end of One Piece's Summit War saga, the Marines succeed in their stated goal of killing Portgas D. Ace and Whitebeard, ostensibly proving the strength of their justice. Yet they lose so much in their victory that even they admit their position ultimately ends up weaker.
  • Before the War began, Straw Hat Luffy sneaks into Impel Down trying to free his brother Ace, and ignites an unprecedented prison riot. Blackbeard also attacks the prison at the same time to do some recruiting, and the ultimate result is a mass jailbreak of at least 240 prisoners escaping due to Luffy's riot, as well as several others from Level 6, who were so dangerous that the World Government had to erase their existence, thanks to Blackbeard's schemes.
  • During the War, the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies prove to be more powerful than expected, decimating half of the Marines' assembled forces. Whitebeard himself demolishes Marineford with his Devil Fruit, the Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor Tremor Fruit), and splits the island in half. What's more, the arrival of the Red Hair Pirates allows the surviving pirates to escape. Even worse, Blackbeard somehow steals Whitebeard's ability, putting one of the most destructive Devil Fruits in the hands of a total madman who now has two Devil Fruit powers, despite this being an impossibility.
  • After the War, Whitebeard's final words, which confirmed the existence of the One Piece, started a second Great Age of Piracy even wilder than the last, with the Marines being unable to respond because of their forces being severely understaffed due to the casualties they suffered. All this, along with the power vacuum Whitebeard's death created, turns the New World into a bloodbath as numerous big name pirates start fighting each other to take his old territories. Worse still, both Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Vice Admiral Garp choose to resign from the Marines because of the Government's decision to cover up the Level Six prison escapees^note They both remain as General Inspector and Instructor respectively, though. Following the promotion of Akainu to Fleet Admiral, Aokiji also leaves out of disgust, and over the two year Timeskip, Blackbeard is able to take Whitebeard's place after seizing much of Whitebeard's former territory and defeating the remains of the Whitebeard Pirates in "The Payback War".
• In Psycho-Pass Season 2, Kirito Kamui finally killed Masako Togane and forced the Sibyl System to judge itself. However, everything he did is already pointless because the system remains standing and is on the verge of expanding its control outside Japan by lending its "help" to SEAUn and assassinating its leader when he realized their true nature. All that Kamui did was helping Sibyl get rid of those defective brains that hinder their progress and the ones left are the sociopathic ones.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • In any timeline (excepting the penultimate one) where Walpurgisnacht is defeated, all the local magical girls are left either dead or having expended so much magical power that they'll soon be powerful witches themselves.
  • Even worse are the timelines where Madoka becomes, according to Kyubey, what could be the most powerful witch in existence. In exchange for defeating a witch that's capable of destroying an entire city, she becomes one capable of destroying the world.
  • This happens kind of a lot. Homura defeats Charlotte, but not before Mami dies. Sayaka prevents a witch from killing Madoka, Hitomi, and several adults by becoming a magical girl. This leads to her becoming a witch, and her destruction in a Heroic Sacrifice by Kyoko (yet another "victory").. In the ending, Madoka erases all witches from existence; but Sayaka and all the historical magical girls still die, and new witch-like monsters appear. Madoka herself disappears, and most people forget that she ever existed. Madoka seems pretty content with this outcome, though.
  • Hitomi is in love with Sayaka's crush Kyousuke and confesses to him before Sayaka gets a chance to. While she does succeed in this case, it inadvertently leads to Sayaka's death, which Hitomi is stuck blaming herself for forever. Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion shows that Kyousuke is actually a terrible boyfriend and Hitomi's relationship is actually highly unsatisfactory.
• Rose Princess Hellrage starts the story with the title character's Evil Uncle successfully mounting a coup against her father to seize the crown. Congratulations. Unfortunately for the Evil Redhead, the way he did it only served to make his rule a mine field. He has to walk on eggshells to keep his supporters from turning on him or finding himself in a Hopeless War, because his country's the weakest on the planet, and his supporting faction hates his country's strongest ally. On top of that, his supporters are fanatics he exploited with their hatred of the main character's silver hair and eyes, so they go and initiate a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, having her rise up as the very agent to destroy his country, and the way they did it completely alienated The Church, the one organization best suited to deal with her.
• Ryu: Ryuji barely survives the final battle and the evil dictator Najah is seemingly killed in the collapse of his fortress. Although the fall of Doma brings hope for peace in the post-apocalypse, the hero loses everyone from his past life, two allied cities were wiped off the map and the only adult who could offer guidance to him is likewise dead. Ryuji ends the story sat upon a throne of rubble, wondering how just one guy is supposed to salvage an era where all knowledge has been lost.
• In Slayers, the Koma War (translated variously as "Dark Lord's Resurrection War", "War of Demonic Invasion", "War of the Monsters' Fall") a thousand years ago ended badly for everyone. Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu destroyed Aqualord Ragradia... but was permanently frozen in the Grim Up North, all his power sealed. Half the Golden Dragons in the world were slaughtered... but Mazoku also suffered the deaths of two Priests and two Generals (who are irreplaceable), as well as the desertion of Chaos Dragon Gaav and all serving him. Even aside from Gaav's outright betrayal, without Shabranigdu organizing them, the Five Retainers couldn't get along and started bickering amongst each other over the best way to end the world. Humans suffered devastating losses, including losing the ability to perform Holy Magic and being confined to a single continent by the Mazoku God-Sealing Field, but on the other hand started developing increased levels of Black and Shamanic Magic. In short, nobody won. Thus, in the novels, when Dynast Grausherra decides to bring about the resurrection of Ruby-Eye through a second Koma War, even his fellow Mazoku are opposed to the idea.
• Occurs in Steins;Gate when Rintaro finally returns from the alpha world line, where Mayuri is doomed to die somehow and the world will be taken over by the Committee of 300, to the beta world line... where Kurisu is doomed to be fatally stabbed by her own father and World War III breaks out as an indirect result. Subtly lampshaded when Rintaro then gives a huge, hammy speech proclaiming his victory, clearly on the verge of tears the whole time. Then subverted when Rintaro is given he chance to avert the beta world line, and the way to do this is to go back in time again and save Kurisu, thus preventing an international time machine arms race and moving into a world line that Rintaro's future self dubs the "Steins Gate world line".
• The conclusion of the First Space War in Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Yeah, humanity survived... by the skin of its teeth, with less than a million humans out of the six billion that once inhabited Earth, and the planet is devastated and barely hanging on as an ecosystem. As for the Zentraedi fleet, their numbers have been severely reduced, and many of them, in being absorbed into Earth culture and becoming isolated from the other Zentraedi in the galaxy, have lost their purpose in life, becoming little more than wandering bandits picking fights for no reason. Fortunately, it gets better, with humanity and its allies becoming a thriving interstellar civilization by the time of the later Macross series.
• Sword Art Online:
  • On the 75th floor of Aincrad, the clearer group manages to defeat The Skull Reaper, but suffers an unusually large number of casualties. While the boss is exceptionally difficult, Kirito realizes that things will likely only get harder from this point on, which likely influences his decision to settle things with Kayaba right then and there after he manages to expose Kayaba as being Heathcliff.
  • At the start of the Phantom Bullet arc, Sinon's squad ambushes a group of monster hunters that's accompanied by a bodyguard with a minigun. In the ensuing battle, all the monster hunters are defeated, but four of Sinon's six squadmates are taken down. Sinon later remarks that considering that her group had the element of surprise (not to mention live-ammo guns that are better suited to fighting players), this wasn't much of a victory.
  • The end of Kirito's efforts to reach the top of the Centoria Cathedral in the Alicization arc. He's able to defeat Quinella and free the human realm from her tyranny, but at the cost of Charlotte, Cardinal and Eugeo's lives and knowing that the Underworld is poorly prepared to defend themselves against a Dark Territory invasion. The trauma of what he's lost is part of the reason why Kirito goes into a crippling Heroic BSoD.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The Anti-Spirals are defeated, but more than half of the Gurren Brigade are dead, including Kittan, and Nia dies soon after returning to earth, because her life force was tied to the Anti-Spiral. On her wedding day of all days.
• Toradora!: Taiga's fight with Student Council President Sumire Kanou concludes with Taiga bruising Sumire up and getting an Anguished Confession Of Love for Kitamura out of her, and since Sumire spends her final days at school (before leaving for America) healing from those bruises, Taiga is considered the winner. But since it was Taiga who started that fight, she's given a two week long suspension from school and is made to write a letter of apology to Sumire for her transgression against her. On top of that, Sumire still gets to where she'd wanted to be and is in good spirits when last seen, and when she reads Taiga's "apology" letter, which turns out to just be the word "FOOL" (or "IDIOT") written in thick marker? She laughs her ass off about it.
• In Two As One Princesses, the main characters are set upon by thugs who try to take her possessions, or her; but she fights them off and they scheme sinister plans for vengeance. Well, they get their petty revenge alright, at the cost of completely destroying themselves, while forcing the main characters to leave town.
• In World Trigger, Border stops Aftokrator's invasion and prevents the worst future (in which Osamu dies and Chika is captured) from taking place. But it comes at the cost of dozens of C-Rank agents captured, six operators killed, Osamu severely injured, and a PR mess on their hands.
• You're Under Arrest!: Played for Laughs in every episode involving Chie Sagamiono, Yoriko's self-proclaimed rival. Chie is obsessed with defeating Yoriko and always challenges to compete on something, be it to see who catches more traffic offenders, a paintball game, or a color guard parade. She always wins, but Yoriko invariably gets a bigger prize later on, either by sheer luck or doing something else that Chie didn't even consider, much to her chagrin.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, when Kaito defeats Mizael in a Duel. The cost? He dies from the cold vacuum of space afterward.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • Karasu's fight with Kurama in the finals of the Dark Tournament. On the one hand, Karasu officially wins the match due to Kurama being down long enough, thereby getting a point for Team Toguro. On the other hand, the match ends with Karasu dead and Kurama barely surviving, so Karasu's the worse off.
  • The ending of the Chapter Black arc has Yusuke defeat Sensui, except Sensui was already dying and the demon gate was opened just so he could die honorably. In addition, said demons turned out to mostly be nobler than the humans Yusuke was to protect, and The Spirit World did indeed turn out to be corrupt.
  • Then in the Makai tournament, Yusuke ends up one-on-one with Yomi, one of the three former Demon Kings. It was an intense battle from beginning to end. In the end, Yomi won the battle, but doing so took so much out of him that he had nothing left for his next opponent. So even in losing, Yusuke managed to keep Yomi from fulfilling his ambition to rule Makai and wage war on the other realms.

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